WEST SPRINGFIELD — During the Town Council meeting on Dec. 1, West Springfield Public Schools’ Chief Financial Officer Adam Tarquini gave a presentation on the fiscal year 2027 level service budget projection.
Tarquini defined level service as “taking all services that we have in place, staff, services, operating budget in the school and rolling that forward.”
A level-funded budget is taking the amount the school was funded in the previous year and being given the same budget the next year.
The approved budget for FY26 was $58.7 million. The FY27 level service projection is $61.5 million, a 4.81% increase.
Salaries take up approximately $49 million of the total budget. Operating expenses take up approximately $12.5 million of the budget and includes transportation, special education out-of-district tuition, supplies and services and curriculum renewals.
Since 80% of the budget is based on salaries and the collective bargaining agreement, which has increases built into them year over year, a level service budget year after year comes with increases, Tarquini explained.
Tarquini said that a big cost the district will assume this year is approximately $1 million for curriculum renewals which were previously funded by ESSER.
He stated, “We’re in the final year for a few of those contracts. We will have to find a way to fund those renewals that are licensed-based for our students. It’s based on enrollment, how many licenses we need. That’s really the biggest cost for those.”
The presentation also looked at the enrollment. West Springfield Public Schools’ current enrollment as of Oct. 1 is approximately 160 fewer students compared to last year.
Tarquini stated that a large reason for the decline is, “the shelters and those students either moving out of town or to other districts was a pretty large component of our reduced enrollment year over year.”
Tarquini said that the declining enrollment will impact foundation budget and Chapter 70 revenue.
When Gov. Maura Healey releases her budget at the end of January 2026, it will be based on the district’s foundation enrollment that is submitted to the state on Oct. 1.
The presentation also dove into an enrollment breakdown and provided a four-year trend for each school building.
There was a large increase in enrollment the last couple years predominantly because of the shelters opening in the district and families resettling in West Springfield, according to Tarquini.
He added that since the shelters have closed, the enrollment has declined.
Middle school and high school enrollment has stayed steady over the last four years as of Oct. 1.
Tarquini stated, “We’re early on in the budget process. I just wanted to use this presentation to kind of set the stage. Obviously we have a few months, we got a lot of work to do.”
Tarquini added he and his team will be spending the next four to six weeks working with each school and department to develop and build their budget.
He further explained that the work will begin to ramp up after Healey’s budget is posted. Tarquini said he will be presenting a foundational budget Chapter 70 overview to the School Committee around the first week of February.
“At that point, we’ll have our numbers for FY27, so once I present to the School Committee, I will come to that next council meeting and present it to the council,” he concluded.
